Use of the da Vinci Robot in distal pancreatectomy / 中华肝胆外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To study the use of the da Vinci robot in distal pancreatectomy.Methods:The data of 53 patients who underwent minimally invasive distal pancreatectomy at the Department of General Surgery of the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University from February 2017 to March 2022 were retrospectively analysed. There were 16 males and 37 females, aged (48.2±16.9) years. These patients were divided into the robot assisted pancreatectomy group (the robot group, n=18) and the laparoscopic pancreatectomy group (the laparoscopic group, n=35) based on the surgical treatment methods. The operations were performed by the same team of surgeons. All patients were diagnosed to have benign or borderline malignant tumors of body and tail of pancreas by preoperative examinations. The success rate of spleen preservation distal pancreatectomy, operation time, intraoperative bleeding, and postoperative complications (including pancreatic fistula, postoperative bleeding, abdominal infection) were compared between the two groups. Results:Spleen preserving distal pancreatectomy was successfully carried out in 13 patients (72.2%) in the robot group and 15 patients (42.9%) in the laparoscopic group. The rate of spleen preservation in the robot group was significantly higher than that in the laparoscopic group (χ 2=4.11, P=0.043). Intraoperative blood loss (104.4±69.3) ml and time to first postoperative passage of flatus were (3.7±1.0) d in the robot group were significantly better than the laparoscopic group (199.4±102.9) ml and (4.8±1.3) d, respectively (both P<0.05). The total incidence of complications in the robot group was 7 cases (38.9%), compared with 14 cases (40.0%) in the laparoscopic group, with no significant difference between the two groups(χ 2=0.006, P=0.938). Conclusions:Robotic-assisted distal pancreatectomy was safe and feasible, and it had advantages in resulting in better spleen preservation than laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy.